Emmanuel Macron’s justice minister is set to face a special tribunal over alleged conflicts of interest and abuse of office, the first time a sitting member of the French government has appeared before the body, reports the Financial Times.
Éric Dupond-Moretti, a former celebrity defence lawyer who was an unconventional pick for minister by the French president in 2020, is set to appear on Monday at the special tribunal focused on ministerial misconduct and composed of three judges and 12 members of parliament.
The case centres on whether Dupond-Moretti abused his position to settle old scores with magistrates and prosecutors with whom he clashed during his decades as a defence lawyer.
He will remain in his job during the 10-day trial, throwing a spotlight on Macron’s habit of retaining ministers and advisers who run into legal problems, despite having pledged in the 2017 presidential election campaign to run a clean, transparent government.
“Why would we ask a minister to step down . . . when he has not been convicted of anything or found guilty of anything?” government spokesman Olivier Véran said on France’s BFMTV on Friday. The justice minister would be capable of doing his job during the hearing, Véran said.
Read more of this report from the Financial Times.
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